NEW YORK—Nielsen is reporting that nearly 51.3 million people watched CNN’s presentation of the first presidential debate of the 2024 election season on Thursday, June 27.
The CNN Presidential Debate between President Biden and former President Trump aired live on CNN and was simulcast on an additional 16 television networks reported by Nielsen.
By age, Nielsen reported that 51,265,000 people aged 2 and older watched the debate and 34,531,000 households. Results for other demos included persons 18-34 (4,502,000 viewers), persons 35-54 (10,918,000) and persons 55+ (34,162,000).
Reported networks include: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Scripps News, Telemundo, Univision, BET, CNN, CNNe, HLN, FOX Business, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation, PBS.
CNN reported that on television, "CNN drew the highest single audience with 9.53 million viewers on its flagship channel, including 3.379 million in the advertiser coveted 25-54 demographic". Fox News drew 9.276 million viewers, ABC News saw 9.21 million viewers and MSNBC drew 4.122 million viewers, according to CNN.
CNN.com also noted that "while the debate drew the largest television audience of the year, it represents over a 30% drop in audience from 2020, when more than 73 million people watched the first debate between Trump and Biden across all television networks. In 2016, a record 84 million tuned in to the first debate matchup between Hillary Clinton and Trump.
